The invention relates to a wireless network comprising a plurality of terminals and an assigned central station, which network, after receiving requests for the wireless transmission of packets between a transmitting and a receiving terminal during a time multiplex frame, is provided for assigning time slots of a following time multiplex frame for the wireless transmission of packets from a transmitting to a receiving terminal.
Any data or packets can be sent via a wireless network of this type. A packet transmission is effected, for example, in the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM=asynchronous transfer mode), which has been developed for transmitting multimedia data between network nodes or devices respectively of a network node of a network. Prior to a connection set-up, for example between two network nodes in such an ATM network agreements about transmission parameters (for example, about bandwidth) are transported and according to the agreement various types of data (for example video and audio data) are inserted into cells. These cells are then transmitted over a single link to a receiving device. The receiving device verifies whether the received data have been transmitted error-free and, if necessary, the receiving device returns data to the transmitting device in response to the received cells.
The asynchronous transfer mode has actually been developed for transmitting data through wire-bound media (for example optical cables or copper cables). However, there are also wireless ATM networks that have been developed as a substitute for the wire-bound media. Such a wireless network transmits, for example, data over radio or infrared links and is known, for example, from EP 0 831 620 A2. A protocol is used here for the MAC layer (MAC=Medium Access Control) of a wireless ATM network.